Mumbai, Nov 20 (IANS): The Indian stock market was shut on Wednesday due to Maharashtra assembly elections. It lost spectacular gains after witnessing a tremendous surge on Tuesday amid fresh Russia-Ukraine tensions.
All segments, including equity, derivative and securities lending and borrowing (SLB) will remain closed. Apart from this, the public holidays will also be for capital markets, futures and option divisions.
Earlier, the market was closed on the occasion of Lakshmi Puja on November 1 and Guru Nanak Jayanti on November 15.
The Indian equity markets snapped a seven-day losing streak and ended higher in the volatile session on November 19, with the Nifty at 23,500 amid buying seen in the auto, realty and media, due to fresh tensions between Ukraine and Russia.
Sensex closed with a gain of 239 points due to heavy profit booking in the last hour of trading. Sensex traded with a gain of over 1,100 points during intra-day trading.
The market witnessed a major reversal when reports emerged of the Ukrainian Armed Forces launching their first ATACMS missile attack on the Russian border region, following which the Kremlin warned of dire consequences.
Meanwhile, the market witnessed heavy buying in the media sector. Nifty Media registered a gain of 2.45 per cent.
Heavy buying was seen in the media sector. Nifty Media registered a gain of 2.45 per cent.
Sensex closed at 77,578.38 after gaining 239.37 points or 0.31 per cent and Nifty closed at 23,518.50 with a gain of 64.70 points or 0.28 per cent.
Experts said that technically, index on a daily scale has formed a doji candle, indicating uncertainty.
The high of the doji candle is approaching the 23,780 level. Thus, 23,780-23,800 will serve as critical resistance for the index. On the downside, the 50-Weekly simple moving average (WSMA) is placed near 23,300, which will provide short-term support for the index.
Overall, the short-term trend is down till index remains below 23,800, said experts.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth Rs 3,411 crore on November 19, while domestic institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 2,783 crore on the same day.